Thursday, November 22, 2007

Ireland-Dr James Reilly (FG) exposes major deficiencies in cancer detection at Portlaoise Hospital

FG health spokesman, Dr James Reilly, called for Mary Harney’s resignation following the revelation today that 97 women who had breast ultrasounds at Portlaoise Hospital are to be recalled for surgical review.This devastating news was revealed on foot of a question he put at the Oireachtas Health Committee rather than through direct contact from the HSE. RTE television News in its report failed to credit Dr Reilly with this question.

Dr Reilly stated "These reviews of ultrasounds were taking place at the same time as the review of mammograms. This means that the HSE has had three months to inform women of this need for a surgical review as it emerged, but failed to do so.".He said that while 97 women had so far been recalled, and claimed that with 177 clinical cases still to be reviewed, the probability is that more women would be recalled for review.Dr Reilly said that more women might have been given false all clears, in addition to the nine already identified as having been misdiagnosed following the review of mammograms at the hospital."The Minister was alerted to the problems in this area two-and-a-half years ago and failed to take control of the problem and simply passed the buck."

Dr Reilly is one of the star performers in the Dail.He is highly talented,articulate, forceful and well briefed.

About Me

This blog will deal primarily with Irish and International political issues. I have long believed that the greater the diversity of comment the stronger our democracy. On occasions analysis may be quite trenchant. I also intend to range over diverse cultural strands of Irish and world society. Sports such as Hurling and Rugby Union -primarily but not exclusively-will feature from time to time.
Other issues -that take my fancy- will surface.